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Saint-Simon
By : AUB&CO Intérieurs
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 16th edition
Discipline : Interior Design
Categories : Residence / Bathroom : Silver Certification
Founded in Quebec in 2010, AUB&CO Interior Design & Eco-Creations is an eco-friendly interior design and architecture company created by Audrey Bernier-Perron. It offers a complete service from the design to the realization of eco-responsible spaces, including consultation and advice. The solutions offered to clients to rethink their homes are sustainable, resilient, regenerative and bold.
Although it does business with a multitude of local partners, the company has only one employee, the company’s founder, and two freelance designers. Audrey Bernier-Perron has been an interior designer since 2006 and her company serves all of Quebec.
AUB&CO’s typical clientele consists of young and not-so-young middle-class families with a keen interest in sustainability issues. The personality of the clients or families are brought to the forefront in each project, as AUB&CO wants more than anything to help people create a healthy, unique, dreamy place to live based on their realities. Through their projects, the designer teaches her clients to identify their true needs and values, as well as to get back to basics and become one with their environment.
With a dedication to eco-responsible design, AUB&CO’s mission is to provide caring and sustainable options for their clients and the planet. Options that contribute to their daily fulfillment and pleasure, while reducing the ecological impact of each project. Sustainable and circular development is indeed one of AUB&CO’s most important values. The eco-responsible spaces we create are balanced and harmonious, both for their inhabitants and for the planet. They enrich the lives of their occupants on a daily basis and evolve to meet the needs of each family, but also those of a world in full transformation.
All of the company’s projects are made from healthy, ethical and ideally locally sourced materials. These materials are chosen because they have the quality to stand the test of time and resist ephemeral trends. They are also the work of other companies that share AUB&CO’s values.
When it comes to guiding her sourcing choices, her main point of reference is this: find suppliers who, like her, have a strong desire to improve not only people’s lives but the state of the planet.
Her goals in choosing suppliers are 1) to provide her clients with the most eco-friendly options possible, which will allow them to adopt healthy lifestyles and live in an environment made up of sustainable and healthy objects and materials; and 2) to help reduce the ecological impact of each project, each home. These goals are at the core of her approach as an interior designer.
- »In dedicating myself to eco-friendly design, I am on a mission to provide caring and sustainable options for my clients, options that contribute to their fulfillment, abundance and enjoyment in their daily lives. To achieve this, I am constantly looking for suppliers who share my values, which are also my selection criteria: environmental values (sustainability, respect for biodiversity, reduction of residual materials, reduction of ecological impact), social values (respect for people, consideration for workers at all stages of production) and economic values (local economy, recycling, contribution to the community). The perfect solution rarely exists, but I look for the best available option while encouraging change. Over time, I have been able to build strong and valuable local collaborations that evolve over time.
My approach to choosing Quebec suppliers begins with extensive research into the company’s mission and values and the technical specifications of the products and services offered. I want to make sure I am offering my customers the best local and environmentally responsible options. »
You know, consumerism as we know it is reaching the end of its possibilities. We now realize that this way of life, which invites us to buy without questioning the incessant renewal of products, is no longer sustainable. Fortunately, there are other options: responsible economic models based on short circuits that favor communities. This is the case of circular design, which proves to us that it is possible to enrich any architectural project with renewable, second-hand and local resources, while supporting the health of people and the planet.
Did you know that indoor air is generally 5 times more polluted than outdoor air? AUB&CO identifies the different sources of pollution that allows us to intervene in the right places. This indoor pollution can be found practically everywhere, for example in electronic, household and cosmetic products, but also in paint, furniture, fabrics, objects and accessories. This is one of the concerns that AUB&CO and its circular design approach takes into account by proposing healthy materials that are free of harmful products such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- » Every day, our mood is also influenced by what surrounds us. With experience, I see that circular design generates beneficial psychological effects promoting healing, learning, creativity and happiness. When our homes are carefully assembled based on what we value and consistent with how we want to live, they begin to serve as more than just spaces to occupy. They become a tangible way to reinforce our values. In everything I design, the idea of reduction is central; de-cluttering makes us lighter. With this in mind, circular design helps us identify our true needs and get back to basics. To free ourselves from our overconsumption habits, it is important to identify the emotional mechanisms behind our purchases. Unlearning is the key to success and circular design can serve as our lever for change. »
AUB&CO’s strategic approach is simple: when it designs and implements an eco-responsible project, it introduces its clients to the companies it has carefully selected for the project beforehand. She does this by means of technical specifications, but also by telling their story, since she knows each of her partners. She also shows her clients inspiring examples of completed projects. She answers their questions about the different options available, and guides them in knowing who to trust. Finally, she directs them to solutions and examples of concrete and resilient achievements and experiences. Once the suppliers have been chosen with the clients, AUB&CO can set up this integrated team and the project can begin.
With all these actions, AUB&CO participates in democratizing and making ecological design accessible to all Quebecers, while improving their knowledge about green building design in Quebec. The company thus introduces its clients to the rich network of local businesses that we are lucky to have.
Why work with local businesses? 1) Buying local encourages local prosperity, contributing to the well-being of our communities. 2) It also cuts out the middleman and thus facilitates better monitoring of the products and services offered. In doing so, we promote integrity, concern for quality and a sense of responsibility for everyone. 3) Finally, doing business with local people reduces our ecological impact: more proximity, less transportation, and an increased sense of responsibility to the environments we need to live in.
- » To this I would add many other reasons, such as inspiring and creating change, respecting our ethical and cultural values, promoting health, enriching daily life, offering good solutions for the environment and using authentic methods and healthy materials that stand the test of time.
Through my leadership in the design of eco-responsible spaces, I am offering Quebecers healthy solutions that inspire young people, families and entrepreneurs. These solutions promote a way of life that allows everyone to become actors of change. Ecological design helps us develop a collective ecological intelligence and consciousness.
My conclusion: circular design is a way of looking at the world. We apply it first by consuming less and consuming better. Personally, I have believed in this possibility since I was a child.
We are reaching a tipping point; we owe it to ourselves as citizens to change our consumption habits. We can all create change.
And today, these opportunities are more accessible than ever. It’s up to us to seize them! And it starts right here, right now. »
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